Jules Roger Sauer (1921-2017) was a Czech-born Brazilian gemmologist, mining entrepreneur and jewellery retailer who founded Amsterdam Sauer in Rio de Janeiro in 1941. Over more than seven decades in the Brazilian trade he built one of the largest coloured-stone retail jewellery houses in Latin America, opened and operated several gem mines, and made one of the most consequential field discoveries in Brazilian gemmology, the 1963 emerald find at Carnaiba in Bahia.

Early life

Sauer was born in 1921 in what was then Czechoslovakia. His family fled to Brazil before the Second World War, and the young Sauer began trading in coloured stones in Rio de Janeiro. In 1941, at the age of twenty, he founded the firm that became Amsterdam Sauer, named for the historic European cutting centre and for his own family. The firm grew through the 1940s and 1950s as Brazilian gem mining expanded and Rio de Janeiro became a regional centre for the international gem trade.

The Carnaiba emerald discovery

In 1963 Sauer led a prospecting expedition into the Bahian sertão that resulted in the discovery of the Carnaiba emerald deposit, the first significant Brazilian emerald find. The Carnaiba deposit, in the municipality of Pindobaçu, opened up Brazil as an emerald-producing country and was followed in subsequent decades by further discoveries at Itabira, Capoeirana, Socotó and Belmont. Brazilian emeralds went from a curiosity to a meaningful share of world emerald production, and Sauer's role in the original Carnaiba find is acknowledged in the gemmological literature.

Other mining and trade activity

Beyond emeralds, Sauer was active in tourmaline, aquamarine, imperial topaz and Paraiba tourmaline mining. He maintained close relationships with the Heitor Dimas Barbosa family, who controlled key Paraiba claims in the 1980s, and was an important early buyer of cuprian elbaite from the Sao Jose da Batalha area. Sauer's mineralogical reference collection, known as the Amsterdam Sauer Museum of Stones in Rio de Janeiro, opened in 1979 and contains thousands of specimens of Brazilian and international gem material.

Retail and brand

Amsterdam Sauer grew into a chain of more than thirty stores, predominantly in Brazil with additional locations in major international tourist cities. The firm's jewellery range emphasises Brazilian coloured stones, including imperial topaz, tourmaline, aquamarine, citrine and Brazilian emerald, set in gold mountings designed in-house. The firm has remained family-controlled, with Jules Sauer's son Daniel Sauer leading the business in his later years.

Recognition

Jules Sauer received an honorary doctorate from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and was made a Knight of the Order of Rio Branco by the Brazilian government in recognition of his contribution to the Brazilian gem industry. He published several books on Brazilian gem deposits, including Emeralds Around the World and Brazil, Paradise of Gemstones, both of which are routinely cited in the gemmological literature.

Significance

For the international trade Sauer is significant on three counts. He was a pioneering figure in Brazilian emerald mining and is associated with the original Carnaiba find. He built one of the largest coloured-stone retail houses in Latin America. And his published work and his museum in Rio de Janeiro have been important reference points for several generations of dealers, gemmologists and field researchers working in Brazilian gem geography.